College and Research Libraries book of practice but as the briefest sum- mary of contemporaneous information on all aspects of cataloging, with special highlight granted to subject indexing and compu- terized accomplishments. Particularly de- serving of note, however, is the brilliant chronological chart depicting under various headings the historical course of cataloging from the end of the eighteenth century to the present day . The large chapter on subject access to materials, commenting on the wide array of precoordinate and postcoordinate indexing systems, types of catalogs, kinds of indexes and thesauri,' and the logic of searching strategy, must appear as a wonderment to those who received their library education in times gone by. The section on networks unfortunately was written too early for recording the formation of RLIN and for judging its pro- found import for American research institu- tions. It must be remarked finally that the general orientation of the text as well as its many examples and descriptions are reflec- tive of librarianship on the British scene. The knowledge and pedagogical sense displayed by the authors of this book are sufficiently impressive to balance out their apprehension (totally justified in certain re- spects) that their little piece may soon be dated. For there is no doubt that, at least for some years , it will remain the informa- tive and attractive model of a rudimentary text. In the meanwhile, therefore, the stu- dent of librarianship should profit from such a pertinent and commendable achieve- ment.-Paul Schuchman , St. John 's Uni- versity, Jamaica , New York . Women's History Sources: A Guide to Ar- chives and Manuscript Collections in the United States. Edited by Andrea Hind- ing. Ames Sheldon Bower, associate edi- tor. Clarke A. Chambers, consulting edi- tor. Suzanna Moody , index editor . In association with the University of Minne- sota. New York: Bowker, 1979. 2v. $175 plus shipping and handling. LC 78-15634. ISBN 0-8352-1103-7 (set). V.1: Collec- tions. V.2: Index. Women's History Sources is a modest title for a monumental reference book The hefty two-volume set provides bibliographic con- Recent Publications I 385 trol of primary source materials for the his- tory of women in America from colonial times to present. The idea for this "grand manuscript search," as Anne Fi:r:or Scott characterized the survey, developed at the 1972 Organization of American Historians. Historians at that meeting expressed the need to have archival sources for the study of women identified and indexed. Inspired by the enthusiastic support for this idea and funded by grants from the National Endow- ment for the Humanities and the University of Minnesota, the Women's History Sources Survey was begun in 1976. The information included in this book was gathered by a mailed questionnaire. The mailing list was compiled with the help of the American Association of State and Local History, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission , the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections staff, as well as oth e rs . In all , more than 11 , 000 repositories were asked to survey their collections and to identify those that contain " material by or about women's lives or roles ." Repositories were asked to com- plete a questionnaire for each appropriate collection , with some repositories submit- ting as many as 600 individual collections . Book collections were specifically excluded. The final result of the survey is the descrip- tion of more than 18,000 collections held by 2,000 repositories . This incredible wealth of sources is arranged by state and then alphabetically by city. Each collection is identifiied by the type of record (papers , records , oral history , or phonotape), size, the dates of the collec- tion, and access to it (open, closed, re- stricted, or partially restricted). If a guide to the collection exists, that is noted . A brief description of the content of the collection is included for each entry. The index, volume 2 of the set, is exem- plary. Names have been checked against standard reference sources and cross- references abound. Subject headings exist for such narrow topics as deaf-blind authors , but broad topics such as diaries and journals also are included. Although the questionnaire technique of gathering information has resulted in an excellent list, some inconsistencies have naturally resulted from numerous archivists ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 386 I College & Research Libraries • july 1980 interpreting what constituted a collection of materials "by or about women's lives or roles." Some archivists probably overlooked collections that might have been listed. There are also some collections listed that are only marginally related to women. The size of collections ranges from multivolume sets of family papers to single items such as the letter from Eleanor Roosevelt stating that her trip to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was pleasant. Size is measured in many ways (cubic feet, volumes, boxes, rooms, etc.), but this does not cause any real problems. The real value of Women's History Sources is that primary source materials are made accessible to those who are describing and analyzing the lives of women in Amer- ica. Other reference works, such as the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Col- lections, the Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories, and its prede- cessor, Hamer's Guide to Archives, provide access to only a small percentage of the col- lections listed here. Even those collections that are listed may not be identified as women's sources. Women's History Sources will do much to facilitate the study of women by historians as well as by researchers in other disci- plines. Perhaps the existence of this guide will also encourage repositories to collect more sources relevant to women's history. The guide will certainly stimulate women's studies research. Libraries with women's studies collections will want to acquire it- Janet L. Ashley, State University of New York, College at Oneonta. Radke, Barbara, and Berger, Mike. Analysis of the 1977 University of California Union List of Serials. Berkeley: University-wide Library Automation Program, University of California, 1978. 80, 20p. $7. (Avail- able from: Division of Library Automa- tion, Office of the Academic Vice-Presi- dent, University of California Statewide Administration, 2150 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94720.) The development of serial union lists in several formats continues to attract fiscal support, and these cooperative efforts face many technical difficulties deriving from the characteristics of serial publication patterns. The staffs of union list projects need a dis- cussion of specific, common problems to be used as an early-warning device, as a guide to manipulation problems which will trap the unwary, and as a means to demonstrate complexity and consequent cost to adminis- trators. The analysis provided by Radke and Berger accomplishes these goals, and more. The analysis details the problems and errors found in the 1977 version of the Uni- versity of California Union List of Serials (UCULS), outlining the negative, and pro- viding, for the most. part, only one side of the picture. Radke and Berger identifY four major problem areas in the UCULS project: variations in cataloging practice; difficultie~ in merging nonparallel, machine-readable records produced on variant standards; dis- parities of CONSER records with local Cali- fornia records; and consolidation problems with the KWOC portions of the numerous files. These problems are not surprising considering that CONSER records were combined with thirty-two California uni- versity and college lists, all as of April 1977. Together they included 450,000 holdings for 350,000 serial titles. At the time, the file produced about 300 fiche. First, the introduction reviews the results of studying the KWOC and its register, lists the steps taken in the study, and proposes several recommendations for improvement. Second, a historical review places the UCULS in context. The third section covers general record and machine problems not surprisingly presented by so many separate files and such a large number of records. Section four outlines a series of recom- mendations which could alleviate these problems in either the UCULS or in some other union-listing project. The fifth section summarizes specific types of examples need- ing change. It also implies techniques for improvement. The sixth section examines the UCULS register and its own significant problems. Section seven examines in detail a "worst case," identifYing additional prob- lems in merging multi-institutional, ma- chine-readable files. This analysis of union list difficulties and specifics surrounding them has wide ap- plication and should be studied by anyone involved with union lists. The analysis, as a historical document, summarizes develop-